Combination of FOCAL SCALA EVO Special Edition, Mark Levinson, and vinyl record player



Three months ago, this issue introduced the Hi-End first-line brand audio system combination of Guangzhou Yufeng Audio Agency. This is a set of French FOCAL and American Mark Levinson (Mark Levinson)'s Hi-End suit, the protagonist is the FOCAL Focal sub-flagship Stella Utopia EM EVO and Mark Levinson _span Mark Levinson _span Mark Levinson _span 11 span14span No.519 CD player, MarkLevinson №526 preamp / No.53 mono post , this system is priced at 1,800,000 yuan, although the sound effect is incredible, it can be sold at a high price. I am afraid that not many enthusiasts can afford it. But the Hi-End suits of French FOCAL and American Mark Levinson are indeed well matched. Some enthusiasts who have not heard of the actual match may think that the two brands are more open and loud. Wouldn't it be too hot? With more than 30 years of fever experience and the experience gained from listening to high-end audio systems in many countries, the author tells readers that the combined sound of the French FOCAL Utopia series and the American Mark Levinson high-end amplifier is more open and majestic. , But at the same time it has its warm and delicate side,It is a more versatile system. The sound of string musicians is beautiful and gorgeous. The symphony and piano are stable and powerful. It can play any type of music and it can be competent, except for the high price. The sound environment requirements are also higher.



used to match between the brands of an agency, but it is often matched with the real golden combination now. The past has been different. Many agents have been operating high-end audio products for 20 to 30 years, and they know more and more which brands can create sparks. Guangzhou Yufeng Audio is no exception. They act as agents for many high-end audio brands. Through the collocation of different brands, we have found feasible solutions from the seemingly "impossible". This time, we have matched such a more cost-effective combination for enthusiasts. The French FOCAL Utopia Series Scala Special Edition and the American Mark Levinson (Mark Levinson) Vincent) No. 523 \ No. 534 before and after, the sound source is the Mark Levinson № 5105 vinyl record player, which has just won the 2021 German Red Dot Design Award. This combination is only about one-third of the price of the previous one. In addition to retaining the essence of the FOCAL Utopia series, the performance of the Mark Levinson front-end system matched with it is also relatively good value, which is more suitable for smaller spaces. In use, although the investment in the system has been halved, the sound quality and sound effects have not been reduced. Is it very worthwhile to buy 80% of the sound quality of the previous system at half the price? The sound system is like this, especially the higher-end system, it always has to double the investment in exchange for the improvement of 10% to 20% or even a few%. For the enthusiasts who don't need money, it is certainly not in place in one step. The question is, but there are still relatively few enthusiasts with such a financial strength. Okay, don't talk nonsense, go directly to the topic, and briefly introduce the hardware of this system.



ranked the fourth SCALA EVO in the FOCAL Utopia series,Literally, it is easy to mix it with the second flagship STRLLA that was matched last time. There is a Maestro between them. It is the FOCAL Utopia series. Although it is the smallest Utopia floor box, the grade and quality of the speaker unit has not shrunk. , It’s just that the unit configuration is a bit smaller and the woofer’s caliber is smaller, but it also uses an 11-inch woofer, and the 6.5-inch midrange unit with it is FOCAL’s own top technology W sandwich composite unit. The tweeter is configured to the top, utopian beryllium tweeter! As we all know, beryllium is a rare metal, highly toxic metal, expensive and difficult to process. FOCAL has solved the protection problem of the beryllium membrane unit early. Beryllium has extremely high hardness and extremely light quality, and it is outstanding and rich in details whether it is large dynamics or micro dynamics. The sound is supple, the speed details are excellent, and the sound is gorgeous, sweet and moist. Although the beryllium membrane tweeter is not the first one made by FOCAL, if you want to ask which of the beryllium membrane tweeters is the most famous and the highest quality, you don’t have to think about it. Think, if FOCAL said he was self-effacing and said he was the second child, no one would dare to call the boss! The FOCAL SCALA EVO midrange and woofer diaphragms use Wcone diaphragms, which is also one of FOCAL's signature technologies. The front and back two layers of glass fiber sandwich the foam material sandwich structure in the middle. Not all Foca’s W-cone diaphragm structures are the same. They will increase the thickness of the front and rear glass fiber according to the needs of the unit. From one layer to multiple layers, the thickness of the central foam material will also be adjusted according to the needs of the unit. , And the unit’s voice coil, centering piece, overhang, and horn overhang have also been improved.



The latest generation of Utopia series units must only use the latest generation of W-cone diaphragms for FOCAL units. Therefore, we have no way of knowing its specific parameters. Some enthusiasts jokingly claim that only the "head down" FOCAL speakers are the essence of FOCAL technology. They are talking about FOCAL independent cabinets with special inclination angles that have been precisely calculated by a computer.This design can control the time for each unit to reach the listening position to be consistent to avoid time phase difference. At the same time, the three units of SCALA EVO's treble, midrange, and bass are installed in an independent cabinet to prevent the sound of each frequency band from interfering with each other in the cabinet, making the sound of each frequency band more pure and clear. In order to achieve the highest level of cabinet workmanship, FOCAL Utopia series speakers also bought a century-old furniture factory that had previously cooperated with FOCAL, and abandoned other furniture businesses, and made speaker cabinets purely for FOCAL. FOCAL is more exquisite and refined. The frequency divider located inside the base can adjust the attenuation or gain of high frequency and low frequency according to actual needs. It can also be connected through jumpers to increase or decrease the amount below 200Hz and above 2000Hz, which greatly increases the user's playability and practicability. .



Although the Mark LevinsonNo. Group and Mark Levinson are also included under Samsung, but Samsung Group does not interfere with the R&D and production of MarkLevinson . The core technical personnel has not changed. R&D director Todd A. Eishenbaum has 28 years of experience in Krell, USA before joining Mark Levinson. The masterpiece of the 5 series of products led by him later was the No. 585 combined machine that included DAC, phono amplifier, and digital-analog all-in-one. It won the CES Best Innovation, EISA Award and the Stereo Sound Award in Japan as soon as it was launched. Within one year Obtained more than 20 audio media recommendations around the world, with outstanding achievements! Mark Levinson led by Todd not only expanded the R&D team, but also established a new audio R&D laboratory in Shelton, Connecticut. All Mark Levininson products are independently developed in the US R&D base and produced in the United States.The heavy and solid chassis of the No. 523 front stage and No. 534 rear stage are made of aviation aluminum, just like his higher series products. The black and white color of the Mark Levininson fuselage is consistent, and you can see it from a distance. Levinson’s classic fuselage style is different from the simplicity and simplicity of some European power amplifiers. Every Mark Levinson’s fuselage is full of circuit boards and components. It’s also very satisfying to see it. , No.534 rear stage 8 ohm load output power of 250 watts per channel, and 4 ohm load power is doubled to 500 watts, high current, high slew rate design, which is also the characteristic of Mark Levinson power amplifier, No. 534 rear stage except for extreme The fast response speed and extremely high bandwidth, the frequency response is from 0.2Hz-120kHz, the total harmonic distortion is less than 0.02, and it is almost indestructible against difficult speakers.


No.523 The pre-stage dual mono fully balanced differential amplifier circuit not only reduces the working noise of the circuit, but also improves the purity of the sound. In addition to high-level input, it also adds high-quality MM/MC Phono amplifier, there is also a type A headphone amplifier output function, its MC phono amplifier includes three-band gain adjustment plus 10-band impedance setting and low-pass filter function to remove the extremely low frequency noise that can be generated when the vinyl turntable rotates. It can be used directly with vinyl record player . Therefore, the sound source that Yufeng Audio uses for this system is Mark Levininson's own № 5105 vinyl record player. Don't think this is just Mark Levininson's second vinyl record player. It won the German Red Dot Best Design Award as soon as it was launched. It's not easy! The overall design is one-piece, and the superb technology ensures that the sound is free from external interference. The processing accuracy of high-quality materials makes every detail obvious, giving this record player a luxurious appearance. In addition to playing vinyl records, it is stable and accurate, and the sound is warm, full and clear. The optional dynamic cartridge not only improves the playability , It also reduces the difficulty of maintenance.



In the large audition room of about 80 square meters of Yufeng Audio,Let's feel the charm of this Hi-End level all-round gold suit. At the beginning, we used a burst of symphony to warm up the engine. Although some classical music lovers look down on it as a "slobber classical disc" like "Invincible Celestial Disc", the reason for using it as an audition is that almost every enthusiast has each Stores have them. Although we are well prepared, we are not worried about whether this system can broadcast large-scale dynamic music, but after all, there is such a large space, can we support it? But I was still amazed by several big dynamic "saliva classical music", FOCAL Utopia SCALA EVO is driven by MarkLevinson No.523 front stage/No.534 rear stage, the sound density of the whole frequency range has not been diluted by such a large space, the sound field Stable, calm and balanced, the burst sound is extremely explosive, and the low frequency with ample sense of volume is deep and deep and the dive is extremely deep. The splendid brilliance of orchestra shines with gorgeous luster, which reminds me of the Dynaudio M4mini monitor speaker not long ago. This kind of momentum, dynamics are not compressed, and the performance of the mid-to-high frequency is naturally needless to say. The mid-to-high frequency performance of all Utopia series boxes is obvious to all, and it comes with a level of "tolerance"!


vocal part I used Xiaojuan published by Longyuan Music, this is a "unrecognizable" album of , a cover of , Teresa Span_11span14 Tambourine, a guitar, and a harmonica can interpret the heart-warming music. Folk, Indonesian and Spanish styles are integrated into it. Xiaojuan's lazy but not lazy midrange is very comfortable with a little rustle. The “metallic” treble area is the highlight. The beryllium treble of FOCAL Utopia SCALA EVO has a unique advantage at this time. Xiaojuan’s tone is lazy and magnetic, and the transition is very charming. It combines breath, true and false sounds. It’s easy to interpret the mid-range and skillful, Xiaojuan's light melancholy and emotional processing is natural, comfortable, euphemistic and meticulous. The analytical power and transparency of this system are too high but not glamorous.Xiaojuan is hydrated, transparent, and airy, like an ethereal airy that does not eat human fireworks. The delicate, noble and unspeakable analytical power is like a Leica movie lens, sharp and oily!


Carreras The "Latin Mass" performed at its peak has a huge sense of energy, and some small-caliber units are really easy to take care of Carreras. When the volume of the abdominal cavity is obviously reduced, don’t think that the tenor singer’s pronunciation is all in the high-pitched part. A good high-pitched singing requires the support of the dantian. This is what many vocal teachers say when singing the high-pitched pronunciation should go to the lower part. , FOCAL Utopia SCALA EVO and Mark Levininson’s interpretation of the system is just right. The energy sense at the peak of Carreras can’t be supported by ordinary audio systems. It’s good if the mid and high frequencies are not disconnected, but this system is perfect. The interpretation of Carreras's strong penetrating power and very difficult to reproduce bel canto! Try Puccini's opera " Tosca", the opera aria sung by the tenor Alania, this system shows a noble, loose and detailed sound, "Black "Church" This familiar part of church music chorus can really count people's heads. The needle-eye-like image and focus can easily analyze the position of the chorus members, and easily restore the deep and wide sense of stage space. pipe organ_ span14span's texture and scale are very impressive!



Soon, half an afternoon and two hours of the wonderful "concert" time will pass, and this system will give me two more recollections.This set of FOCAL SCALA EVO Special Edition and Mark Levinson's all-round gold combination before and after, vinyl record player combination, no matter what type of music is performed, don’t worry, although I personally don’t like heavy metal rock music and I didn’t use this kind of software. Try listening, but I believe that this system will be fine for playing this type of music. What kind of music is played like what kind of music is the characteristic of this system. The 100,000 system is a very eye-catching combination, and if the sound is good and the brand awareness is high, then this system is one of the goals that many enthusiasts can choose!


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